Chapter 2 - The Hidden Room
Daniel struck the panel once.
The wood splintered but held.
He struck it again, harder. A section broke loose, revealing darkness and a narrow space behind the mirror. Dust drifted into the dressing room.
“Move back, Lily,” he ordered.
“But Mommy—”
“Clara!” he shouted toward the corridor. “Take Lily outside. Now!”
Lily clung to his jacket. “Don't leave her.”
“I won't.”
The maid hurried forward and lifted Lily, but the child struggled.
“Daddy, that's Mommy! I know her voice!”
“I know, sweetheart.”
Daniel swung again. The panel cracked from top to bottom. Behind it was not a shallow cavity but a concealed compartment, barely wide enough for a person to sit upright. A narrow ventilation grille had been cut near the ceiling. A small battery lamp flickered on the floor.
And in the darkness, a woman raised a trembling hand.
Emma.
Her wrists were tied with rope. Her hair hung in tangled strands around a pale face. Her dress was torn and stained with dust. A bruise shadowed one cheek.
Daniel dropped the hammer.
For a second, he could not move.
Then he reached through the broken opening and caught her hand.
“Emma.”
She tried to speak, but only a dry sound came out.
He tore at the remaining wood until the opening was wide enough. The compartment had been built between the dressing room and an old storage closet, sealed behind a false wall during the mansion's renovation.
Daniel pulled Emma carefully into his arms.
She weighed almost nothing.
“Get a doctor!” he shouted. “Call an ambulance!”
Lily broke free of the maid and ran toward them.
“Mommy!”
Emma turned her head. The moment she saw her daughter, her exhausted face crumpled.
“My baby.”
Lily threw herself against her mother, sobbing.
“I knew you weren't gone. I knew it.”
Emma wrapped one bound arm around her as best she could.
Daniel took the rope from her wrists and worked it loose with shaking fingers. He had imagined finding Emma a thousand times—in a hospital, at a police station, perhaps at the door of their old house. Never in the wall of his own mansion, hidden behind the mirror where his bride had been preparing to marry him.
“Who did this?” he asked.
Emma's eyes moved toward the doorway.
Vanessa stood there.
Her wedding gown was immaculate. Her veil rested over one shoulder. Her face showed no shock, no confusion, no horror.
Only irritation.
“She must have found a way to loosen the panel,” Vanessa said.
Daniel slowly turned.
“What?”
Vanessa looked toward the broken wall. “She's been trying to get out for weeks. I told the staff to keep the room locked.”
The words seemed to hang in the air.
“You knew she was here?”
Vanessa's expression hardened. “Daniel, listen to me. She's unstable. She disappeared two years ago and now she's suddenly—”
“She's been inside that wall.”
“She was supposed to stay quiet until after the ceremony.”
Silence filled the room.
Even Vanessa seemed to realize what she had admitted.
Daniel rose slowly, placing himself between her and Emma.
“You locked my wife inside a wall.”
“Your ex-wife,” Vanessa snapped. “You were going to marry me.”
Lily began crying again.
Daniel looked at the woman he had planned to marry and saw a stranger.
“Don't come near my daughter.”
Vanessa's gaze flicked toward Lily. “Daniel, you're misunderstanding—”
“No. I'm finally understanding.”
Two security officers appeared in the doorway. Daniel ordered them to keep Vanessa in the room and call the police. Then he knelt beside Emma again.
“Stay with me,” he whispered.
Emma's fingers closed around his wrist.
“Daniel… the bouquet.”
He glanced toward the vanity.
“What about it?”
“Don't let her take it.”
Vanessa lunged toward the flowers.
One guard caught her arm.
Daniel looked at the bouquet lying on the floor. Beneath the white roses, a tiny black recorder had been taped to the stems.
May you like
Vanessa stopped struggling.
And for the first time, fear replaced the anger in her eyes.
